U.S. stocks fell for a third straight session Tuesday as higher long-term bond yields put fresh pressure on richly valued technology names. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.33%, underperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500, while the 30-year U.S. Treasury yield briefly touched 5.338%, its highest level since 2007. The move was part of a wider global bond sell-off that also pushed long-dated yields higher in France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. Markets are increasingly focused on the growing debt burden tied to artificial intelligence expansion. According to figures cited in the report, AI-related bond issuance has reached $489 billion so far this year, well above an earlier full-year 2025 estimate of roughly $322 billion, while The Wall Street Journal reported that nine major technology companies have about $3 trillion in off-balance-sheet AI commitments. That backdrop hit semiconductors, memory, optical communications and AI cloud-service providers especially hard. Investors are also weighing fiscal deficits, oil-driven inflation risks tied to the Iran situation, and a heavy event calendar that includes U.S. tariffs on some Canadian products, a 20-year Treasury auction, Federal Reserve minutes and China’s one-year LPR decision.

Bitget UEX’s latest daily market report said interest-rate options in the U.S. Treasury market are increasingly being used to position for Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2027, while expectations for a September hike have eased sharply from levels seen two weeks ago. The note tied that shift to softer July inflation, retail sales and consumer sentiment, along with a surprise decline of 23,000 in nonfarm payrolls. Swap pricing now implies only about 9 basis points of tightening at the September meeting. The report also pointed to a separate macro driver: U.S. officials said Donald Trump had told his negotiating team, including Vice President Vance, envoy Witkoff and Kushner, to pause contact with Iran. That kept uncertainty around Hormuz-related supply channels in focus and helped support crude prices. In parallel, tighter power-use oversight for data centers in Pennsylvania, Texas and New York has added pressure to the AI infrastructure trade, which Bank of America strategists now view as a midterm-election variable. Across markets, BTC traded around $64,600 and ETH at $1,915, while U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $298 million in net inflows the previous day. U.S. equities fell, led by AI hardware, semiconductors and optical networking names, with Nvidia, Meta, Coherent and Lumentum among the laggards. Apple was one of the few large-cap tech names to close higher.

According to MSX.COM data, storage, optical communications and AI cloud service sectors fell sharply at the U.S. close. SanDisk, SK hynix and Seagate Technology dropped more than 9%, while Western Digital and Micron Technology fell more than 7%. Coherent, Lumentum and Corning also moved lower, along with CoreWeave, Nebius and Applied Optoelectronics.

AI enthusiasm got another boost this week after Anthropic and OpenAI reported strong financial updates and Nvidia pledged support for data center construction. The rebound lifted U.S. storage stocks and pushed the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index back into a technical bull market. Micron, SanDisk, SK Hynix, Western Digital and Seagate all moved higher, while Kioxia ADR jumped on gains in Japan. Analysts said the latest revenue disclosures from Anthropic and OpenAI, along with Nvidia’s financing role in AI infrastructure, are the main near-term catalysts for chips and memory names.

U.S. equities opened lower on Aug. 18, with AI and semiconductor names leading the decline. Micron briefly fell nearly 7%, TSMC ADR lost about 4%, and NVIDIA, Broadcom and Meta also weakened. The move followed rising oil prices, higher Treasury yields and renewed Middle East tensions, not a single earnings report or an abrupt collapse in AI demand. Reuters reported that U.S.-Iran talks stalled and Brent crude climbed back near $90 a barrel. That in turn revived inflation concerns and pushed long-dated Treasury yields higher, with the 30-year yield touching about 5.29%, the highest since 2007, while the 10-year yield held around 4.71%. Energy stocks rose instead, with XLE up more than 1% intraday. Still, the article says there is not enough evidence that AI infrastructure demand has turned. U.S. industrial output for July rose 0.2%, semiconductor production increased 2.4%, and Microsoft and Amazon’s latest results still point to strong cloud demand. Gold and silver did not rally either, suggesting investors were focused more on yields and the dollar than on classic safe-haven flows. The piece highlights three numbers to watch next: Brent above $90, the U.S. 10-year yield, and AI companies’ revenue, orders and free cash flow.

Bank of America said SanDisk’s newly outlined long-term growth targets may offer a fresh valuation reference point for Micron (MU), leading the bank to reiterate its Buy rating and keep its $1,550 price target. That target stands about 61% above the $963 share price used in the report. SanDisk told investors it expects nearly 15% annual sales growth and gross margin above 80% by fiscal 2030. BofA argued that if Micron can deliver similar growth and profitability, supported by AI-driven demand for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, and tighter supply discipline, the company may no longer deserve to be viewed purely as a traditional cyclical memory name. The bank said Micron’s fiscal 2030 earnings per share could reach $200 to $250 and added that a higher valuation for its AI-related HBM business could expand both earnings potential and the stock’s multiple. BofA also said Micron could trade at 12x to 15x earnings as profitability in the memory industry improves. On capital returns, the bank expects Micron may step up share buybacks after CHIPS Act-related restrictions expire on Dec. 9, 2026.

U.S. stock index futures and a range of AI-linked hardware names moved lower in premarket trading on Aug. 18, with weakness showing up across storage and optical communications stocks. According to BIT (Bit.com) market data, the Nasdaq fell 0.32%, the S&P 500 lost 0.52%, and the Dow slipped 0.51% before the opening bell. Among individual names, SanDisk, Seagate Technology, Western Digital, Micron Technology, and SK Hynix all declined, while Corning, Coherent, Marvell Technology, Lumentum Holdings, and Nokia also traded lower. The move came as markets revisited Anthropic’s reported revenue trajectory. Bloomberg had previously reported that the company’s annualized revenue run rate reached about $65 billion as of the end of July. That figure landed below some third-party data points and optimistic expectations in AI circles that had pointed to more than $80 billion, prompting questions about whether the pace of growth is slowing. Part of the dispute centers on ARR, or annual recurring revenue. ARR annualizes current revenue pace and is not the same as audited full-year revenue. Sacra said Anthropic’s annualized revenue was about $47 billion in May and rose to $65 billion in July, while also noting that revenue from cloud channels including AWS, Google, and Microsoft may be recognized on a gross basis, a factor that can make the revenue scale appear larger and draw more scrutiny to margins and revenue quality.

Odaily reported, citing data from MSX.COM, that U.S. storage-related stocks were broadly lower in premarket trading. Micron Technology (MU.O) fell 4.8%, while SanDisk (SNDK.O), SK Hynix (SKHY.O), and Western Digital (WDC.O) were down about 5.5%. The report also noted that MSX.COM is a decentralized RWA trading platform that has listed hundreds of RWA tokens. Its offerings cover U.S. stock and ETF token underlyings including AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, META, MSFT, NFLX, and NVDA. No further market details were provided in the source item.